Destruction and Creation: Frank Auerbach’s Charcoal Heads at The Courtauld
The latest Courtauld exhibition brings Auerbach's early-career portraits together for the first time...
By
Rhea Mathur
February 13, 2024
Comprising solely of his charcoal heads made between the 1950s and the 1960s, Frank Auerbach’s latest exhibition at The Courtauld materialises the inescapable histories of war, erasure and trauma surrounding us in the modern world. Auerbach’s unique use of materials such as charcoal and chalk drawn on paper transforms the exhibition of drawings into one where every work stands independently. Set in simple black and white frames, with slight embellishments, the works are presented in the gallery not as drawings for paintings but as finished works. This significant use of paper and charcoal as his portraiture materials brings forward minute details and showcases the turmoil in Auerbach’s mind, giving us an insight into not only the rigorous process of creating the works but also bringing us into the mind of post-war artists, navigating a world where creation and destruction work hand in hand.
This highlights a time in the artist’s life when he was learning how to economically and creatively express himself. Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach was sent to the UK when he was nine years old to escape Nazism. Growing up among the students whom Anna Essinger protected in 1939, Auerbach was immersed in the creativity of this boarding school in Kent, which paved the way for his pursuit of a life in the arts. While he was sent to escape the war that followed, Auerbach lost every living relative, including his parents, to the concentration camps, and by 1947, he had only one living relative.
The impact of this isolation can be seen as one of the reasons Auerbach was drawn to portraiture and the intimate study of the human body, specifically his focus on the cranium. It may also be why he felt a spark of creativity when working with a sitter, drawing from their energy and allowing their presence to manipulate the work and his expression. When closely examining the charcoal heads in the exhibition, it's crucial to consider not only the finished works but also what prompted their creation - specifically, his use of black and white, imagery displays a deep sense of melancholy undoubtedly present in Auerbach’s post-war life. It was also practicality that led Auerbach to choose black, white and grey as his palette; with his taste for layering, Auerbach was known to go through full tubes of paint, inserting them directly onto his canvas, a costly endeavour which led him to reduce the number of shades he used. When Auerbach began studying with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, Bomberg introduced him to drawings with charcoal and chalk and Auerbach realised an opportunity to transform the medium.
A popular medium for sketching and drawing since the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century, charcoal drawings were used specifically for developing ideas, creating outlines for paintings and designing the work. Auerbach, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to reinvent them using them to create finished works as completed ‘paintings’ in their own right. Using charcoal, chalk, an eraser and paper - media that was cheaper to acquire - Auerbach was able to layer, construct, erase, patch and repeat, sometimes working on the same work for months. Charcoal, white chalk and paper allowed the artist a medium he could afford, and for years helped him develop his skills. Surrounded by the works of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and R.B. Kitaj, Auerbach was able to bring individuality to twentieth-century drawings. Later forming the School of London, these artists worked together to pursue avant-garde art, with Auerbach’s charcoal and layering technique becoming important to their search for new ways of expression.
Barnaby Wright’s curation puts all of Auerbach’s charcoal heads together in the same room for the first time. By placing them together, with small texts for guidance amongst the white walls of the two rooms, Wright allows the audience to recognise the intensity of emotions that Auerbach’s drawings produce within the spectator. The layered, erased, torn and recreated work brings forward the artist’s journey that harbours not just melancholy and emptiness, but also a strong sense of individuality and a zeal to create.
A level of growth within Auerbach’s work soon becomes evident. By 1960, the artist incorporated pink lines in his work to symbolise the sense of creative energy that his sitter shared with him. This begins a creative shift in his work where they exemplify not just Auerbach’s past and the trauma of the war, but a human ability to recreate and resurrect. Within his work, Auerbach presents a desire to bring to life not just what is lost and what was destroyed, but a perspective that focuses on life, creation, regeneration and the future. This exhibition successfully brings to life not just Auerbach but also his sitters such as Gerda Boehm (who also escaped similar circumstances to Auerbach). Boehm is the only one of Auerbach’s sitters to strike a pose, with no intervention by the artist, as if proving her endurance and resistance in the face of destruction.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is showing at The Courtauld until 27th May 2024
Comprising solely of his charcoal heads made between the 1950s and the 1960s, Frank Auerbach’s latest exhibition at The Courtauld materialises the inescapable histories of war, erasure and trauma surrounding us in the modern world. Auerbach’s unique use of materials such as charcoal and chalk drawn on paper transforms the exhibition of drawings into one where every work stands independently. Set in simple black and white frames, with slight embellishments, the works are presented in the gallery not as drawings for paintings but as finished works. This significant use of paper and charcoal as his portraiture materials brings forward minute details and showcases the turmoil in Auerbach’s mind, giving us an insight into not only the rigorous process of creating the works but also bringing us into the mind of post-war artists, navigating a world where creation and destruction work hand in hand.
This highlights a time in the artist’s life when he was learning how to economically and creatively express himself. Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach was sent to the UK when he was nine years old to escape Nazism. Growing up among the students whom Anna Essinger protected in 1939, Auerbach was immersed in the creativity of this boarding school in Kent, which paved the way for his pursuit of a life in the arts. While he was sent to escape the war that followed, Auerbach lost every living relative, including his parents, to the concentration camps, and by 1947, he had only one living relative.
The impact of this isolation can be seen as one of the reasons Auerbach was drawn to portraiture and the intimate study of the human body, specifically his focus on the cranium. It may also be why he felt a spark of creativity when working with a sitter, drawing from their energy and allowing their presence to manipulate the work and his expression. When closely examining the charcoal heads in the exhibition, it's crucial to consider not only the finished works but also what prompted their creation - specifically, his use of black and white, imagery displays a deep sense of melancholy undoubtedly present in Auerbach’s post-war life. It was also practicality that led Auerbach to choose black, white and grey as his palette; with his taste for layering, Auerbach was known to go through full tubes of paint, inserting them directly onto his canvas, a costly endeavour which led him to reduce the number of shades he used. When Auerbach began studying with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, Bomberg introduced him to drawings with charcoal and chalk and Auerbach realised an opportunity to transform the medium.
A popular medium for sketching and drawing since the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century, charcoal drawings were used specifically for developing ideas, creating outlines for paintings and designing the work. Auerbach, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to reinvent them using them to create finished works as completed ‘paintings’ in their own right. Using charcoal, chalk, an eraser and paper - media that was cheaper to acquire - Auerbach was able to layer, construct, erase, patch and repeat, sometimes working on the same work for months. Charcoal, white chalk and paper allowed the artist a medium he could afford, and for years helped him develop his skills. Surrounded by the works of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and R.B. Kitaj, Auerbach was able to bring individuality to twentieth-century drawings. Later forming the School of London, these artists worked together to pursue avant-garde art, with Auerbach’s charcoal and layering technique becoming important to their search for new ways of expression.
Barnaby Wright’s curation puts all of Auerbach’s charcoal heads together in the same room for the first time. By placing them together, with small texts for guidance amongst the white walls of the two rooms, Wright allows the audience to recognise the intensity of emotions that Auerbach’s drawings produce within the spectator. The layered, erased, torn and recreated work brings forward the artist’s journey that harbours not just melancholy and emptiness, but also a strong sense of individuality and a zeal to create.
A level of growth within Auerbach’s work soon becomes evident. By 1960, the artist incorporated pink lines in his work to symbolise the sense of creative energy that his sitter shared with him. This begins a creative shift in his work where they exemplify not just Auerbach’s past and the trauma of the war, but a human ability to recreate and resurrect. Within his work, Auerbach presents a desire to bring to life not just what is lost and what was destroyed, but a perspective that focuses on life, creation, regeneration and the future. This exhibition successfully brings to life not just Auerbach but also his sitters such as Gerda Boehm (who also escaped similar circumstances to Auerbach). Boehm is the only one of Auerbach’s sitters to strike a pose, with no intervention by the artist, as if proving her endurance and resistance in the face of destruction.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is showing at The Courtauld until 27th May 2024
Comprising solely of his charcoal heads made between the 1950s and the 1960s, Frank Auerbach’s latest exhibition at The Courtauld materialises the inescapable histories of war, erasure and trauma surrounding us in the modern world. Auerbach’s unique use of materials such as charcoal and chalk drawn on paper transforms the exhibition of drawings into one where every work stands independently. Set in simple black and white frames, with slight embellishments, the works are presented in the gallery not as drawings for paintings but as finished works. This significant use of paper and charcoal as his portraiture materials brings forward minute details and showcases the turmoil in Auerbach’s mind, giving us an insight into not only the rigorous process of creating the works but also bringing us into the mind of post-war artists, navigating a world where creation and destruction work hand in hand.
This highlights a time in the artist’s life when he was learning how to economically and creatively express himself. Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach was sent to the UK when he was nine years old to escape Nazism. Growing up among the students whom Anna Essinger protected in 1939, Auerbach was immersed in the creativity of this boarding school in Kent, which paved the way for his pursuit of a life in the arts. While he was sent to escape the war that followed, Auerbach lost every living relative, including his parents, to the concentration camps, and by 1947, he had only one living relative.
The impact of this isolation can be seen as one of the reasons Auerbach was drawn to portraiture and the intimate study of the human body, specifically his focus on the cranium. It may also be why he felt a spark of creativity when working with a sitter, drawing from their energy and allowing their presence to manipulate the work and his expression. When closely examining the charcoal heads in the exhibition, it's crucial to consider not only the finished works but also what prompted their creation - specifically, his use of black and white, imagery displays a deep sense of melancholy undoubtedly present in Auerbach’s post-war life. It was also practicality that led Auerbach to choose black, white and grey as his palette; with his taste for layering, Auerbach was known to go through full tubes of paint, inserting them directly onto his canvas, a costly endeavour which led him to reduce the number of shades he used. When Auerbach began studying with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, Bomberg introduced him to drawings with charcoal and chalk and Auerbach realised an opportunity to transform the medium.
A popular medium for sketching and drawing since the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century, charcoal drawings were used specifically for developing ideas, creating outlines for paintings and designing the work. Auerbach, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to reinvent them using them to create finished works as completed ‘paintings’ in their own right. Using charcoal, chalk, an eraser and paper - media that was cheaper to acquire - Auerbach was able to layer, construct, erase, patch and repeat, sometimes working on the same work for months. Charcoal, white chalk and paper allowed the artist a medium he could afford, and for years helped him develop his skills. Surrounded by the works of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and R.B. Kitaj, Auerbach was able to bring individuality to twentieth-century drawings. Later forming the School of London, these artists worked together to pursue avant-garde art, with Auerbach’s charcoal and layering technique becoming important to their search for new ways of expression.
Barnaby Wright’s curation puts all of Auerbach’s charcoal heads together in the same room for the first time. By placing them together, with small texts for guidance amongst the white walls of the two rooms, Wright allows the audience to recognise the intensity of emotions that Auerbach’s drawings produce within the spectator. The layered, erased, torn and recreated work brings forward the artist’s journey that harbours not just melancholy and emptiness, but also a strong sense of individuality and a zeal to create.
A level of growth within Auerbach’s work soon becomes evident. By 1960, the artist incorporated pink lines in his work to symbolise the sense of creative energy that his sitter shared with him. This begins a creative shift in his work where they exemplify not just Auerbach’s past and the trauma of the war, but a human ability to recreate and resurrect. Within his work, Auerbach presents a desire to bring to life not just what is lost and what was destroyed, but a perspective that focuses on life, creation, regeneration and the future. This exhibition successfully brings to life not just Auerbach but also his sitters such as Gerda Boehm (who also escaped similar circumstances to Auerbach). Boehm is the only one of Auerbach’s sitters to strike a pose, with no intervention by the artist, as if proving her endurance and resistance in the face of destruction.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is showing at The Courtauld until 27th May 2024
Comprising solely of his charcoal heads made between the 1950s and the 1960s, Frank Auerbach’s latest exhibition at The Courtauld materialises the inescapable histories of war, erasure and trauma surrounding us in the modern world. Auerbach’s unique use of materials such as charcoal and chalk drawn on paper transforms the exhibition of drawings into one where every work stands independently. Set in simple black and white frames, with slight embellishments, the works are presented in the gallery not as drawings for paintings but as finished works. This significant use of paper and charcoal as his portraiture materials brings forward minute details and showcases the turmoil in Auerbach’s mind, giving us an insight into not only the rigorous process of creating the works but also bringing us into the mind of post-war artists, navigating a world where creation and destruction work hand in hand.
This highlights a time in the artist’s life when he was learning how to economically and creatively express himself. Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach was sent to the UK when he was nine years old to escape Nazism. Growing up among the students whom Anna Essinger protected in 1939, Auerbach was immersed in the creativity of this boarding school in Kent, which paved the way for his pursuit of a life in the arts. While he was sent to escape the war that followed, Auerbach lost every living relative, including his parents, to the concentration camps, and by 1947, he had only one living relative.
The impact of this isolation can be seen as one of the reasons Auerbach was drawn to portraiture and the intimate study of the human body, specifically his focus on the cranium. It may also be why he felt a spark of creativity when working with a sitter, drawing from their energy and allowing their presence to manipulate the work and his expression. When closely examining the charcoal heads in the exhibition, it's crucial to consider not only the finished works but also what prompted their creation - specifically, his use of black and white, imagery displays a deep sense of melancholy undoubtedly present in Auerbach’s post-war life. It was also practicality that led Auerbach to choose black, white and grey as his palette; with his taste for layering, Auerbach was known to go through full tubes of paint, inserting them directly onto his canvas, a costly endeavour which led him to reduce the number of shades he used. When Auerbach began studying with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, Bomberg introduced him to drawings with charcoal and chalk and Auerbach realised an opportunity to transform the medium.
A popular medium for sketching and drawing since the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century, charcoal drawings were used specifically for developing ideas, creating outlines for paintings and designing the work. Auerbach, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to reinvent them using them to create finished works as completed ‘paintings’ in their own right. Using charcoal, chalk, an eraser and paper - media that was cheaper to acquire - Auerbach was able to layer, construct, erase, patch and repeat, sometimes working on the same work for months. Charcoal, white chalk and paper allowed the artist a medium he could afford, and for years helped him develop his skills. Surrounded by the works of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and R.B. Kitaj, Auerbach was able to bring individuality to twentieth-century drawings. Later forming the School of London, these artists worked together to pursue avant-garde art, with Auerbach’s charcoal and layering technique becoming important to their search for new ways of expression.
Barnaby Wright’s curation puts all of Auerbach’s charcoal heads together in the same room for the first time. By placing them together, with small texts for guidance amongst the white walls of the two rooms, Wright allows the audience to recognise the intensity of emotions that Auerbach’s drawings produce within the spectator. The layered, erased, torn and recreated work brings forward the artist’s journey that harbours not just melancholy and emptiness, but also a strong sense of individuality and a zeal to create.
A level of growth within Auerbach’s work soon becomes evident. By 1960, the artist incorporated pink lines in his work to symbolise the sense of creative energy that his sitter shared with him. This begins a creative shift in his work where they exemplify not just Auerbach’s past and the trauma of the war, but a human ability to recreate and resurrect. Within his work, Auerbach presents a desire to bring to life not just what is lost and what was destroyed, but a perspective that focuses on life, creation, regeneration and the future. This exhibition successfully brings to life not just Auerbach but also his sitters such as Gerda Boehm (who also escaped similar circumstances to Auerbach). Boehm is the only one of Auerbach’s sitters to strike a pose, with no intervention by the artist, as if proving her endurance and resistance in the face of destruction.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is showing at The Courtauld until 27th May 2024
Comprising solely of his charcoal heads made between the 1950s and the 1960s, Frank Auerbach’s latest exhibition at The Courtauld materialises the inescapable histories of war, erasure and trauma surrounding us in the modern world. Auerbach’s unique use of materials such as charcoal and chalk drawn on paper transforms the exhibition of drawings into one where every work stands independently. Set in simple black and white frames, with slight embellishments, the works are presented in the gallery not as drawings for paintings but as finished works. This significant use of paper and charcoal as his portraiture materials brings forward minute details and showcases the turmoil in Auerbach’s mind, giving us an insight into not only the rigorous process of creating the works but also bringing us into the mind of post-war artists, navigating a world where creation and destruction work hand in hand.
This highlights a time in the artist’s life when he was learning how to economically and creatively express himself. Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach was sent to the UK when he was nine years old to escape Nazism. Growing up among the students whom Anna Essinger protected in 1939, Auerbach was immersed in the creativity of this boarding school in Kent, which paved the way for his pursuit of a life in the arts. While he was sent to escape the war that followed, Auerbach lost every living relative, including his parents, to the concentration camps, and by 1947, he had only one living relative.
The impact of this isolation can be seen as one of the reasons Auerbach was drawn to portraiture and the intimate study of the human body, specifically his focus on the cranium. It may also be why he felt a spark of creativity when working with a sitter, drawing from their energy and allowing their presence to manipulate the work and his expression. When closely examining the charcoal heads in the exhibition, it's crucial to consider not only the finished works but also what prompted their creation - specifically, his use of black and white, imagery displays a deep sense of melancholy undoubtedly present in Auerbach’s post-war life. It was also practicality that led Auerbach to choose black, white and grey as his palette; with his taste for layering, Auerbach was known to go through full tubes of paint, inserting them directly onto his canvas, a costly endeavour which led him to reduce the number of shades he used. When Auerbach began studying with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, Bomberg introduced him to drawings with charcoal and chalk and Auerbach realised an opportunity to transform the medium.
A popular medium for sketching and drawing since the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century, charcoal drawings were used specifically for developing ideas, creating outlines for paintings and designing the work. Auerbach, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to reinvent them using them to create finished works as completed ‘paintings’ in their own right. Using charcoal, chalk, an eraser and paper - media that was cheaper to acquire - Auerbach was able to layer, construct, erase, patch and repeat, sometimes working on the same work for months. Charcoal, white chalk and paper allowed the artist a medium he could afford, and for years helped him develop his skills. Surrounded by the works of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and R.B. Kitaj, Auerbach was able to bring individuality to twentieth-century drawings. Later forming the School of London, these artists worked together to pursue avant-garde art, with Auerbach’s charcoal and layering technique becoming important to their search for new ways of expression.
Barnaby Wright’s curation puts all of Auerbach’s charcoal heads together in the same room for the first time. By placing them together, with small texts for guidance amongst the white walls of the two rooms, Wright allows the audience to recognise the intensity of emotions that Auerbach’s drawings produce within the spectator. The layered, erased, torn and recreated work brings forward the artist’s journey that harbours not just melancholy and emptiness, but also a strong sense of individuality and a zeal to create.
A level of growth within Auerbach’s work soon becomes evident. By 1960, the artist incorporated pink lines in his work to symbolise the sense of creative energy that his sitter shared with him. This begins a creative shift in his work where they exemplify not just Auerbach’s past and the trauma of the war, but a human ability to recreate and resurrect. Within his work, Auerbach presents a desire to bring to life not just what is lost and what was destroyed, but a perspective that focuses on life, creation, regeneration and the future. This exhibition successfully brings to life not just Auerbach but also his sitters such as Gerda Boehm (who also escaped similar circumstances to Auerbach). Boehm is the only one of Auerbach’s sitters to strike a pose, with no intervention by the artist, as if proving her endurance and resistance in the face of destruction.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is showing at The Courtauld until 27th May 2024
Comprising solely of his charcoal heads made between the 1950s and the 1960s, Frank Auerbach’s latest exhibition at The Courtauld materialises the inescapable histories of war, erasure and trauma surrounding us in the modern world. Auerbach’s unique use of materials such as charcoal and chalk drawn on paper transforms the exhibition of drawings into one where every work stands independently. Set in simple black and white frames, with slight embellishments, the works are presented in the gallery not as drawings for paintings but as finished works. This significant use of paper and charcoal as his portraiture materials brings forward minute details and showcases the turmoil in Auerbach’s mind, giving us an insight into not only the rigorous process of creating the works but also bringing us into the mind of post-war artists, navigating a world where creation and destruction work hand in hand.
This highlights a time in the artist’s life when he was learning how to economically and creatively express himself. Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach was sent to the UK when he was nine years old to escape Nazism. Growing up among the students whom Anna Essinger protected in 1939, Auerbach was immersed in the creativity of this boarding school in Kent, which paved the way for his pursuit of a life in the arts. While he was sent to escape the war that followed, Auerbach lost every living relative, including his parents, to the concentration camps, and by 1947, he had only one living relative.
The impact of this isolation can be seen as one of the reasons Auerbach was drawn to portraiture and the intimate study of the human body, specifically his focus on the cranium. It may also be why he felt a spark of creativity when working with a sitter, drawing from their energy and allowing their presence to manipulate the work and his expression. When closely examining the charcoal heads in the exhibition, it's crucial to consider not only the finished works but also what prompted their creation - specifically, his use of black and white, imagery displays a deep sense of melancholy undoubtedly present in Auerbach’s post-war life. It was also practicality that led Auerbach to choose black, white and grey as his palette; with his taste for layering, Auerbach was known to go through full tubes of paint, inserting them directly onto his canvas, a costly endeavour which led him to reduce the number of shades he used. When Auerbach began studying with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, Bomberg introduced him to drawings with charcoal and chalk and Auerbach realised an opportunity to transform the medium.
A popular medium for sketching and drawing since the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century, charcoal drawings were used specifically for developing ideas, creating outlines for paintings and designing the work. Auerbach, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to reinvent them using them to create finished works as completed ‘paintings’ in their own right. Using charcoal, chalk, an eraser and paper - media that was cheaper to acquire - Auerbach was able to layer, construct, erase, patch and repeat, sometimes working on the same work for months. Charcoal, white chalk and paper allowed the artist a medium he could afford, and for years helped him develop his skills. Surrounded by the works of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and R.B. Kitaj, Auerbach was able to bring individuality to twentieth-century drawings. Later forming the School of London, these artists worked together to pursue avant-garde art, with Auerbach’s charcoal and layering technique becoming important to their search for new ways of expression.
Barnaby Wright’s curation puts all of Auerbach’s charcoal heads together in the same room for the first time. By placing them together, with small texts for guidance amongst the white walls of the two rooms, Wright allows the audience to recognise the intensity of emotions that Auerbach’s drawings produce within the spectator. The layered, erased, torn and recreated work brings forward the artist’s journey that harbours not just melancholy and emptiness, but also a strong sense of individuality and a zeal to create.
A level of growth within Auerbach’s work soon becomes evident. By 1960, the artist incorporated pink lines in his work to symbolise the sense of creative energy that his sitter shared with him. This begins a creative shift in his work where they exemplify not just Auerbach’s past and the trauma of the war, but a human ability to recreate and resurrect. Within his work, Auerbach presents a desire to bring to life not just what is lost and what was destroyed, but a perspective that focuses on life, creation, regeneration and the future. This exhibition successfully brings to life not just Auerbach but also his sitters such as Gerda Boehm (who also escaped similar circumstances to Auerbach). Boehm is the only one of Auerbach’s sitters to strike a pose, with no intervention by the artist, as if proving her endurance and resistance in the face of destruction.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is showing at The Courtauld until 27th May 2024
Comprising solely of his charcoal heads made between the 1950s and the 1960s, Frank Auerbach’s latest exhibition at The Courtauld materialises the inescapable histories of war, erasure and trauma surrounding us in the modern world. Auerbach’s unique use of materials such as charcoal and chalk drawn on paper transforms the exhibition of drawings into one where every work stands independently. Set in simple black and white frames, with slight embellishments, the works are presented in the gallery not as drawings for paintings but as finished works. This significant use of paper and charcoal as his portraiture materials brings forward minute details and showcases the turmoil in Auerbach’s mind, giving us an insight into not only the rigorous process of creating the works but also bringing us into the mind of post-war artists, navigating a world where creation and destruction work hand in hand.
This highlights a time in the artist’s life when he was learning how to economically and creatively express himself. Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach was sent to the UK when he was nine years old to escape Nazism. Growing up among the students whom Anna Essinger protected in 1939, Auerbach was immersed in the creativity of this boarding school in Kent, which paved the way for his pursuit of a life in the arts. While he was sent to escape the war that followed, Auerbach lost every living relative, including his parents, to the concentration camps, and by 1947, he had only one living relative.
The impact of this isolation can be seen as one of the reasons Auerbach was drawn to portraiture and the intimate study of the human body, specifically his focus on the cranium. It may also be why he felt a spark of creativity when working with a sitter, drawing from their energy and allowing their presence to manipulate the work and his expression. When closely examining the charcoal heads in the exhibition, it's crucial to consider not only the finished works but also what prompted their creation - specifically, his use of black and white, imagery displays a deep sense of melancholy undoubtedly present in Auerbach’s post-war life. It was also practicality that led Auerbach to choose black, white and grey as his palette; with his taste for layering, Auerbach was known to go through full tubes of paint, inserting them directly onto his canvas, a costly endeavour which led him to reduce the number of shades he used. When Auerbach began studying with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, Bomberg introduced him to drawings with charcoal and chalk and Auerbach realised an opportunity to transform the medium.
A popular medium for sketching and drawing since the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century, charcoal drawings were used specifically for developing ideas, creating outlines for paintings and designing the work. Auerbach, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to reinvent them using them to create finished works as completed ‘paintings’ in their own right. Using charcoal, chalk, an eraser and paper - media that was cheaper to acquire - Auerbach was able to layer, construct, erase, patch and repeat, sometimes working on the same work for months. Charcoal, white chalk and paper allowed the artist a medium he could afford, and for years helped him develop his skills. Surrounded by the works of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and R.B. Kitaj, Auerbach was able to bring individuality to twentieth-century drawings. Later forming the School of London, these artists worked together to pursue avant-garde art, with Auerbach’s charcoal and layering technique becoming important to their search for new ways of expression.
Barnaby Wright’s curation puts all of Auerbach’s charcoal heads together in the same room for the first time. By placing them together, with small texts for guidance amongst the white walls of the two rooms, Wright allows the audience to recognise the intensity of emotions that Auerbach’s drawings produce within the spectator. The layered, erased, torn and recreated work brings forward the artist’s journey that harbours not just melancholy and emptiness, but also a strong sense of individuality and a zeal to create.
A level of growth within Auerbach’s work soon becomes evident. By 1960, the artist incorporated pink lines in his work to symbolise the sense of creative energy that his sitter shared with him. This begins a creative shift in his work where they exemplify not just Auerbach’s past and the trauma of the war, but a human ability to recreate and resurrect. Within his work, Auerbach presents a desire to bring to life not just what is lost and what was destroyed, but a perspective that focuses on life, creation, regeneration and the future. This exhibition successfully brings to life not just Auerbach but also his sitters such as Gerda Boehm (who also escaped similar circumstances to Auerbach). Boehm is the only one of Auerbach’s sitters to strike a pose, with no intervention by the artist, as if proving her endurance and resistance in the face of destruction.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is showing at The Courtauld until 27th May 2024
Comprising solely of his charcoal heads made between the 1950s and the 1960s, Frank Auerbach’s latest exhibition at The Courtauld materialises the inescapable histories of war, erasure and trauma surrounding us in the modern world. Auerbach’s unique use of materials such as charcoal and chalk drawn on paper transforms the exhibition of drawings into one where every work stands independently. Set in simple black and white frames, with slight embellishments, the works are presented in the gallery not as drawings for paintings but as finished works. This significant use of paper and charcoal as his portraiture materials brings forward minute details and showcases the turmoil in Auerbach’s mind, giving us an insight into not only the rigorous process of creating the works but also bringing us into the mind of post-war artists, navigating a world where creation and destruction work hand in hand.
This highlights a time in the artist’s life when he was learning how to economically and creatively express himself. Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach was sent to the UK when he was nine years old to escape Nazism. Growing up among the students whom Anna Essinger protected in 1939, Auerbach was immersed in the creativity of this boarding school in Kent, which paved the way for his pursuit of a life in the arts. While he was sent to escape the war that followed, Auerbach lost every living relative, including his parents, to the concentration camps, and by 1947, he had only one living relative.
The impact of this isolation can be seen as one of the reasons Auerbach was drawn to portraiture and the intimate study of the human body, specifically his focus on the cranium. It may also be why he felt a spark of creativity when working with a sitter, drawing from their energy and allowing their presence to manipulate the work and his expression. When closely examining the charcoal heads in the exhibition, it's crucial to consider not only the finished works but also what prompted their creation - specifically, his use of black and white, imagery displays a deep sense of melancholy undoubtedly present in Auerbach’s post-war life. It was also practicality that led Auerbach to choose black, white and grey as his palette; with his taste for layering, Auerbach was known to go through full tubes of paint, inserting them directly onto his canvas, a costly endeavour which led him to reduce the number of shades he used. When Auerbach began studying with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, Bomberg introduced him to drawings with charcoal and chalk and Auerbach realised an opportunity to transform the medium.
A popular medium for sketching and drawing since the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century, charcoal drawings were used specifically for developing ideas, creating outlines for paintings and designing the work. Auerbach, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to reinvent them using them to create finished works as completed ‘paintings’ in their own right. Using charcoal, chalk, an eraser and paper - media that was cheaper to acquire - Auerbach was able to layer, construct, erase, patch and repeat, sometimes working on the same work for months. Charcoal, white chalk and paper allowed the artist a medium he could afford, and for years helped him develop his skills. Surrounded by the works of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and R.B. Kitaj, Auerbach was able to bring individuality to twentieth-century drawings. Later forming the School of London, these artists worked together to pursue avant-garde art, with Auerbach’s charcoal and layering technique becoming important to their search for new ways of expression.
Barnaby Wright’s curation puts all of Auerbach’s charcoal heads together in the same room for the first time. By placing them together, with small texts for guidance amongst the white walls of the two rooms, Wright allows the audience to recognise the intensity of emotions that Auerbach’s drawings produce within the spectator. The layered, erased, torn and recreated work brings forward the artist’s journey that harbours not just melancholy and emptiness, but also a strong sense of individuality and a zeal to create.
A level of growth within Auerbach’s work soon becomes evident. By 1960, the artist incorporated pink lines in his work to symbolise the sense of creative energy that his sitter shared with him. This begins a creative shift in his work where they exemplify not just Auerbach’s past and the trauma of the war, but a human ability to recreate and resurrect. Within his work, Auerbach presents a desire to bring to life not just what is lost and what was destroyed, but a perspective that focuses on life, creation, regeneration and the future. This exhibition successfully brings to life not just Auerbach but also his sitters such as Gerda Boehm (who also escaped similar circumstances to Auerbach). Boehm is the only one of Auerbach’s sitters to strike a pose, with no intervention by the artist, as if proving her endurance and resistance in the face of destruction.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is showing at The Courtauld until 27th May 2024
Comprising solely of his charcoal heads made between the 1950s and the 1960s, Frank Auerbach’s latest exhibition at The Courtauld materialises the inescapable histories of war, erasure and trauma surrounding us in the modern world. Auerbach’s unique use of materials such as charcoal and chalk drawn on paper transforms the exhibition of drawings into one where every work stands independently. Set in simple black and white frames, with slight embellishments, the works are presented in the gallery not as drawings for paintings but as finished works. This significant use of paper and charcoal as his portraiture materials brings forward minute details and showcases the turmoil in Auerbach’s mind, giving us an insight into not only the rigorous process of creating the works but also bringing us into the mind of post-war artists, navigating a world where creation and destruction work hand in hand.
This highlights a time in the artist’s life when he was learning how to economically and creatively express himself. Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach was sent to the UK when he was nine years old to escape Nazism. Growing up among the students whom Anna Essinger protected in 1939, Auerbach was immersed in the creativity of this boarding school in Kent, which paved the way for his pursuit of a life in the arts. While he was sent to escape the war that followed, Auerbach lost every living relative, including his parents, to the concentration camps, and by 1947, he had only one living relative.
The impact of this isolation can be seen as one of the reasons Auerbach was drawn to portraiture and the intimate study of the human body, specifically his focus on the cranium. It may also be why he felt a spark of creativity when working with a sitter, drawing from their energy and allowing their presence to manipulate the work and his expression. When closely examining the charcoal heads in the exhibition, it's crucial to consider not only the finished works but also what prompted their creation - specifically, his use of black and white, imagery displays a deep sense of melancholy undoubtedly present in Auerbach’s post-war life. It was also practicality that led Auerbach to choose black, white and grey as his palette; with his taste for layering, Auerbach was known to go through full tubes of paint, inserting them directly onto his canvas, a costly endeavour which led him to reduce the number of shades he used. When Auerbach began studying with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, Bomberg introduced him to drawings with charcoal and chalk and Auerbach realised an opportunity to transform the medium.
A popular medium for sketching and drawing since the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century, charcoal drawings were used specifically for developing ideas, creating outlines for paintings and designing the work. Auerbach, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to reinvent them using them to create finished works as completed ‘paintings’ in their own right. Using charcoal, chalk, an eraser and paper - media that was cheaper to acquire - Auerbach was able to layer, construct, erase, patch and repeat, sometimes working on the same work for months. Charcoal, white chalk and paper allowed the artist a medium he could afford, and for years helped him develop his skills. Surrounded by the works of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and R.B. Kitaj, Auerbach was able to bring individuality to twentieth-century drawings. Later forming the School of London, these artists worked together to pursue avant-garde art, with Auerbach’s charcoal and layering technique becoming important to their search for new ways of expression.
Barnaby Wright’s curation puts all of Auerbach’s charcoal heads together in the same room for the first time. By placing them together, with small texts for guidance amongst the white walls of the two rooms, Wright allows the audience to recognise the intensity of emotions that Auerbach’s drawings produce within the spectator. The layered, erased, torn and recreated work brings forward the artist’s journey that harbours not just melancholy and emptiness, but also a strong sense of individuality and a zeal to create.
A level of growth within Auerbach’s work soon becomes evident. By 1960, the artist incorporated pink lines in his work to symbolise the sense of creative energy that his sitter shared with him. This begins a creative shift in his work where they exemplify not just Auerbach’s past and the trauma of the war, but a human ability to recreate and resurrect. Within his work, Auerbach presents a desire to bring to life not just what is lost and what was destroyed, but a perspective that focuses on life, creation, regeneration and the future. This exhibition successfully brings to life not just Auerbach but also his sitters such as Gerda Boehm (who also escaped similar circumstances to Auerbach). Boehm is the only one of Auerbach’s sitters to strike a pose, with no intervention by the artist, as if proving her endurance and resistance in the face of destruction.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is showing at The Courtauld until 27th May 2024
Comprising solely of his charcoal heads made between the 1950s and the 1960s, Frank Auerbach’s latest exhibition at The Courtauld materialises the inescapable histories of war, erasure and trauma surrounding us in the modern world. Auerbach’s unique use of materials such as charcoal and chalk drawn on paper transforms the exhibition of drawings into one where every work stands independently. Set in simple black and white frames, with slight embellishments, the works are presented in the gallery not as drawings for paintings but as finished works. This significant use of paper and charcoal as his portraiture materials brings forward minute details and showcases the turmoil in Auerbach’s mind, giving us an insight into not only the rigorous process of creating the works but also bringing us into the mind of post-war artists, navigating a world where creation and destruction work hand in hand.
This highlights a time in the artist’s life when he was learning how to economically and creatively express himself. Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach was sent to the UK when he was nine years old to escape Nazism. Growing up among the students whom Anna Essinger protected in 1939, Auerbach was immersed in the creativity of this boarding school in Kent, which paved the way for his pursuit of a life in the arts. While he was sent to escape the war that followed, Auerbach lost every living relative, including his parents, to the concentration camps, and by 1947, he had only one living relative.
The impact of this isolation can be seen as one of the reasons Auerbach was drawn to portraiture and the intimate study of the human body, specifically his focus on the cranium. It may also be why he felt a spark of creativity when working with a sitter, drawing from their energy and allowing their presence to manipulate the work and his expression. When closely examining the charcoal heads in the exhibition, it's crucial to consider not only the finished works but also what prompted their creation - specifically, his use of black and white, imagery displays a deep sense of melancholy undoubtedly present in Auerbach’s post-war life. It was also practicality that led Auerbach to choose black, white and grey as his palette; with his taste for layering, Auerbach was known to go through full tubes of paint, inserting them directly onto his canvas, a costly endeavour which led him to reduce the number of shades he used. When Auerbach began studying with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, Bomberg introduced him to drawings with charcoal and chalk and Auerbach realised an opportunity to transform the medium.
A popular medium for sketching and drawing since the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century, charcoal drawings were used specifically for developing ideas, creating outlines for paintings and designing the work. Auerbach, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to reinvent them using them to create finished works as completed ‘paintings’ in their own right. Using charcoal, chalk, an eraser and paper - media that was cheaper to acquire - Auerbach was able to layer, construct, erase, patch and repeat, sometimes working on the same work for months. Charcoal, white chalk and paper allowed the artist a medium he could afford, and for years helped him develop his skills. Surrounded by the works of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and R.B. Kitaj, Auerbach was able to bring individuality to twentieth-century drawings. Later forming the School of London, these artists worked together to pursue avant-garde art, with Auerbach’s charcoal and layering technique becoming important to their search for new ways of expression.
Barnaby Wright’s curation puts all of Auerbach’s charcoal heads together in the same room for the first time. By placing them together, with small texts for guidance amongst the white walls of the two rooms, Wright allows the audience to recognise the intensity of emotions that Auerbach’s drawings produce within the spectator. The layered, erased, torn and recreated work brings forward the artist’s journey that harbours not just melancholy and emptiness, but also a strong sense of individuality and a zeal to create.
A level of growth within Auerbach’s work soon becomes evident. By 1960, the artist incorporated pink lines in his work to symbolise the sense of creative energy that his sitter shared with him. This begins a creative shift in his work where they exemplify not just Auerbach’s past and the trauma of the war, but a human ability to recreate and resurrect. Within his work, Auerbach presents a desire to bring to life not just what is lost and what was destroyed, but a perspective that focuses on life, creation, regeneration and the future. This exhibition successfully brings to life not just Auerbach but also his sitters such as Gerda Boehm (who also escaped similar circumstances to Auerbach). Boehm is the only one of Auerbach’s sitters to strike a pose, with no intervention by the artist, as if proving her endurance and resistance in the face of destruction.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is showing at The Courtauld until 27th May 2024
Comprising solely of his charcoal heads made between the 1950s and the 1960s, Frank Auerbach’s latest exhibition at The Courtauld materialises the inescapable histories of war, erasure and trauma surrounding us in the modern world. Auerbach’s unique use of materials such as charcoal and chalk drawn on paper transforms the exhibition of drawings into one where every work stands independently. Set in simple black and white frames, with slight embellishments, the works are presented in the gallery not as drawings for paintings but as finished works. This significant use of paper and charcoal as his portraiture materials brings forward minute details and showcases the turmoil in Auerbach’s mind, giving us an insight into not only the rigorous process of creating the works but also bringing us into the mind of post-war artists, navigating a world where creation and destruction work hand in hand.
This highlights a time in the artist’s life when he was learning how to economically and creatively express himself. Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach was sent to the UK when he was nine years old to escape Nazism. Growing up among the students whom Anna Essinger protected in 1939, Auerbach was immersed in the creativity of this boarding school in Kent, which paved the way for his pursuit of a life in the arts. While he was sent to escape the war that followed, Auerbach lost every living relative, including his parents, to the concentration camps, and by 1947, he had only one living relative.
The impact of this isolation can be seen as one of the reasons Auerbach was drawn to portraiture and the intimate study of the human body, specifically his focus on the cranium. It may also be why he felt a spark of creativity when working with a sitter, drawing from their energy and allowing their presence to manipulate the work and his expression. When closely examining the charcoal heads in the exhibition, it's crucial to consider not only the finished works but also what prompted their creation - specifically, his use of black and white, imagery displays a deep sense of melancholy undoubtedly present in Auerbach’s post-war life. It was also practicality that led Auerbach to choose black, white and grey as his palette; with his taste for layering, Auerbach was known to go through full tubes of paint, inserting them directly onto his canvas, a costly endeavour which led him to reduce the number of shades he used. When Auerbach began studying with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, Bomberg introduced him to drawings with charcoal and chalk and Auerbach realised an opportunity to transform the medium.
A popular medium for sketching and drawing since the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century, charcoal drawings were used specifically for developing ideas, creating outlines for paintings and designing the work. Auerbach, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to reinvent them using them to create finished works as completed ‘paintings’ in their own right. Using charcoal, chalk, an eraser and paper - media that was cheaper to acquire - Auerbach was able to layer, construct, erase, patch and repeat, sometimes working on the same work for months. Charcoal, white chalk and paper allowed the artist a medium he could afford, and for years helped him develop his skills. Surrounded by the works of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and R.B. Kitaj, Auerbach was able to bring individuality to twentieth-century drawings. Later forming the School of London, these artists worked together to pursue avant-garde art, with Auerbach’s charcoal and layering technique becoming important to their search for new ways of expression.
Barnaby Wright’s curation puts all of Auerbach’s charcoal heads together in the same room for the first time. By placing them together, with small texts for guidance amongst the white walls of the two rooms, Wright allows the audience to recognise the intensity of emotions that Auerbach’s drawings produce within the spectator. The layered, erased, torn and recreated work brings forward the artist’s journey that harbours not just melancholy and emptiness, but also a strong sense of individuality and a zeal to create.
A level of growth within Auerbach’s work soon becomes evident. By 1960, the artist incorporated pink lines in his work to symbolise the sense of creative energy that his sitter shared with him. This begins a creative shift in his work where they exemplify not just Auerbach’s past and the trauma of the war, but a human ability to recreate and resurrect. Within his work, Auerbach presents a desire to bring to life not just what is lost and what was destroyed, but a perspective that focuses on life, creation, regeneration and the future. This exhibition successfully brings to life not just Auerbach but also his sitters such as Gerda Boehm (who also escaped similar circumstances to Auerbach). Boehm is the only one of Auerbach’s sitters to strike a pose, with no intervention by the artist, as if proving her endurance and resistance in the face of destruction.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is showing at The Courtauld until 27th May 2024
